Author: staff

As regular reader and J.R.R. Tolkein enthusiast Giorgia Meloni will tell you, Sauron started out as an angelic spirit whose obsession with order eventually turned into a desire for power and domination. On a completely unrelated note, Viktor Orbán could lose his grip on high office this weekend if he’s defeated by Péter Magyar. If that happens, the European Council will lose one of its most interesting characters. Orbán isn’t the only leader to have his own private zoo — former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has a shark tank, presumably topped by a trapdoor so rivals can be despatched with…

So far, NATO countries at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters have not been briefed on the meeting, according to two senior alliance diplomats, nor have they begun discussing the deployment of military equipment to reopen the strait. Standing ready U.S. allies have repeatedly pledged to help restart shipping along the Strait of Hormuz trade chokepoint — but only once the fighting fully stops. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday said he had “encouraged” Trump to “pursue the negotiations in earnest” on ending the war with Iran during a call with the president on Wednesday. “At the same time, I assured him…

The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran — which has now entered a two-week ceasefire — has seen the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, in a move that has led to a sharp increase in oil prices. Starmer has tried to position Britain at the center of a coalition of countries helping to reopen the Strait, but broke with Trump in the early days of the war by refusing U.S. permission to use British bases for offensive strikes. Trump has hurled insults Starmer’s way ever since. In the same interview, Starmer refused to be drawn on Trump’s threat, ahead of the…

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that Germany had resumed talks with Iran after a fragile truce was reached between Tehran and Washington that could lead to peace negotiations. “After a long period silence, which we had serious reasons for, we are now as a government restarting talks with Tehran,” Merz told reporters, adding that this would being done “in coordination with the United States and our European partners.” There have been no high-level talks between Berlin and Tehran since summer 2025. Relations deteriorated at the beginning of the 2020s when Germany, along with the other E3 countries, France and…

BARCELONA — POLITICO is bringing the continent’s top decision-makers and business leaders together in Barcelona to discuss Europe’s future. The European Pulse Forum 2026, an initiative from POLITICO and beBartlet, will present polling in six different countries — Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain — to understand how people view the issues facing Europe today and how they say policymakers should tackle those challenges. What’s the state of the transatlantic relationship? Is the European Union up for the challenges facing Europe today? How should the EU and national governments handle rising energy prices? Should there be a European army?…

Published on 09/04/2026 – 20:10 GMT+2 Cuba’s foreign minister accused the United States of “extorting” Latin American countries on Thursday by pressuring them to cancel decades-old deals with Havana for the supply of doctors. Bruno Rodríguez said the United States was trying to “strangle” the economy of the communist island, which earns billions from its foreign medical missions, after several countries stopped deploying Cuban doctors. Washington says the programme, a major source of pride and income, n Cuba since the 1960s, amounts to forced labour. The US stance on the doctors’ programme is part of a campaign of maximum pressure…

“The key for us, why we want to join the EU, is obviously common values that we all believe in, and secondly, it’s the single market, it’s half a billion people versus half a million Montenegrins,” Spajić said. “And the third thing is it’s a peace project, maybe even the last peace project on Earth now these days, so this is the value of the European Union.” Across Europe, non-EU countries from Iceland to Moldova have increasingly expressed interest in joining the bloc for security and safety rather than simply trade and economic benefits following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of…

Published on 09/04/2026 – 21:17 GMT+2 US First Lady Melania Trump made a surprise on-camera statement on Thursday denying unspecified allegations about her and Jeffrey Epstein, a scandal that her husband President Donald Trump has long downplayed. The 55-year-old former model’s remarks at the White House came without prior announcement and with no explanation for why she would bring up the late sex offender Epstein now. “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” she said. “The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect.” The Slovenian-born first lady gave a…

“There seems to be little doubt that spreading terror among Iranian civilians is the primary purpose of Trump’s threat,” Heller noted. “That said, Trump’s threat is unlikely to qualify as a war crime,” he added, noting that international tribunals have typically required such threats to result in “grave consequences” for civilians — and “that has obviously not happened yet.” Others suggest such rhetoric may be unlawful under international law without necessarily meeting the threshold for a war crime. “These threats violate the prohibition against giving no quarter,” said Gerry Simpson, professor of public international law at the London School of…

Published on 09/04/2026 – 21:29 GMT+2 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ceasefire with Ukraine for the duration of the Orthodox Easter holidays, the Kremlin said on Thursday night, after Kyiv also proposed a pause in hostilities. “By the decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief…V.V. Putin, in connection with the approaching Orthodox feast of Easter (the Resurrection of Christ), a ceasefire is declared from 16:00 (13:00 GMT) on 11 April until the end of the day on 12 April 2026,” the Kremlin’s statement said. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously signalled Kyiv’s openness to a potential Easter truce. Easter falls on…